Pink Turns Red

It turned out to be yet another Terror Tuesday. Terrorists struck for the first time in Jaipur, triggering seven serial blasts in a span of 12 minutes, starting around 7:35 PM, in crowded market areas and near a Hanuman temple in the walled city leaving at least 60 killed and 150 injured.

At the time of writing, the chief minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje, who rushed back to thestate capital from Jodhpur, had confirmed the above figures. But as is inevitable in such situations, these figures are bound to go up, as more reports come in.

Security agencies and even the prime minister had spoken of soft targetsbecoming the victims of terror. And soft-targets they were in Tripolia Bazar, where large number of devotees had turned up at a Hanuman temple, JohariBazar, Manas Chowk, Badi Choupal and Choti Choupal--all located within a two-km radius in the old city.

All these areas, including Hawa Mahal, which were targeted are those that arefrequented the most by tourists -- both local and foreign.

According to IG (Jaipur) Pankaj Singh, in all there were eight blasts, a couple of them in the same area.

One live bomb attached to a cycle was recovered near the explosion site at Chandpole Gate which was later defused, Director General of Police A S Gill later said.

Blood was splattered at the scene of the blasts, the intensity of which canbe estimated by the fact that many of the victims were tossed several feet up.

Preliminary investigations revealed that cycle ballbearings were used in the explosions to inflict shrapnel injuries on the victims. A clock timer was also found at one of the blast sites.

Medical teams were rushed from Ajmer and Kota to cope up with the situation to render aid.

Severed limbs, mangled heaps of cycle rickshaws, bicycles and smashed windscreensof cars turned the crowded markets crammed with peak-time shoppers in Pink City into a virtual war zone minutes after serial bomb blasts were set off.

Utter Chaos
"We heard a big sound and what was left was a plume of smoke and blood all around," said an injured eyewitness as he wasbeing taken on a stretcher to a hospital.

Utter chaos and panic prevailed soon after the blasts took place in a span of minutes.

Scores of wounded people were ferried to three hospitals. Within minutes of the blast, one could see siren blaring ambulances and vehicles zippingthrough the crowded bylanes.

The blasts triggered a near-stampede situation at the blast sites as panic-stricken people ran helter-skelter in search of a safe place.

People were also seen carrying the injured as the number of ambulances fell far short of the requirement.

The nearby hospitals were crowded as relatives thronged to look for their near and dear ones.

Bomb data squad of the elite National Security Guards has been rushed to the Pink City.

The state government has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs five lakh for the family of those who died in the explosions, Rs one lakh for seriously injured and Rs 25,000 for the injured.

HuJi Suspected
Banned Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia (HuJI), operating from Bangladesh, is believed to be behind the serial blasts.

Though baffled by the attack as Jaipur was not on the terror radar, sources said the tell-tale signs of the blasts indicate HuJI's hand.

According to these sources, the blasts showed that HuJI, which is being mainly run from Bangladesh, has managed to establish cells in Rajasthan and that the outfit was responsible for previous major terror attacks including the New Year eve attack on CRPF camp in Rampur and serial blasts in three other places in Uttar Pradesh.

The last terror strike in Rajasthan occurred on October 11, 2007 when an explosion in the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer left two persons dead and 17 others injured.

HuJI outfit, suspected to be behind the blast at the sufi shrine, had used a mixture of Tri-Nitro Toluene (TNT) as the explosive material.

In this blasts also, pieces of iron pipe were used by militants as splinters that pierced through victims at the crowded places in the Pink city.

The sources did not rule out the possibility that banned HuJI may have been supported by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) which has been attempting to target tourist destinations and places of economic interests.

The intelligence agencies have already started analysing STD and international calls made out of Jaipur during the last 48 hours.

Nation-wide alert
The union home ministry has sounded a nation-wide alert. "The Home Ministry is keeping a close watch on the situation in the Pink City," a senior MHA official said, adding that an alert has been sounded in all states.

Deployment of policemen at sensitive places has been enhanced and variousmeasures including frisking and checking have been intensified throughout India.Vigil has been stepped up at public places including railway stations, busdepots and places of worship.

In Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh police have stepped up vigil in the cityfollowing serial blasts in Jaipur. The police were taking precautions also inview of the first anniversary of the Mecca masjid blast on May 17.

'UPA's soft-approach'
The President, Vice-President and the Prime Minister have strongly condemned the bomb blasts in Jaipur and appealed for calm. Congress President Sonia Gandhi has condemned them as crime against humanity and appealed to the people to maintain peace and harmony in this "grave" hour.

But, meanwhile, it was politics as usual. Typically, the BJP blamed the Congress-ledUPA government's "soft approach" towards terrorism for the deadly terror attacks in Jaipur.

Senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said such terror attacks were the result of the "weak policies" of agovernment headed by a "weak Prime Minister and a "coward home minister".

He said the centre neither shares intelligence inputs about such attacks with states nor alerts the states. "Be it the case of Rampur or Varanasi attacks, it is evident that thecentre does not share information." "It is a complete failure of the UPA government," he added.

Another senior leader Arun Jaitely said such terror acts "must arouse a greater national desire of becoming a hard state and should increase the country's resolve to fight terror".

"The party condoles the deaths and losses in the blasts. Now it is time for a proper coordinated effort to combat terror,"BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

"The terror outfits are even targeting small cities irrespective of region. It is time for the state and central governments to work out together a proper response to the terror blasts," he added.